Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 32 (2000)

Page:   Index   Previous  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  Next

734

HILL v. COLORADO

Opinion of the Court

issue in Schenck and Madsen where particular speakers were at times completely banned within certain zones. Under this statute, absolutely no channel of communication is foreclosed. No speaker is silenced. And no message is prohibited. Petitioners are simply wrong when they assert that "[t]he statute compels speakers to obtain consent to speak and it authorizes private citizens to deny petitioners' requests to engage in expressive activities." 41 To the contrary, this statute does not provide for a "heckler's veto" but rather allows every speaker to engage freely in any expressive activity communicating all messages and viewpoints subject only to the narrow place requirement imbedded within the "approach" restriction.

Furthermore, our concerns about "prior restraints" relate to restrictions imposed by official censorship.42 The regulations in this case, however, only apply if the pedestrian does not consent to the approach.43 Private citizens have always retained the power to decide for themselves what they wish to read, and within limits, what oral messages they want to consider. This statute simply empowers private citizens entering a health care facility with the ability to prevent a speaker, who is within eight feet and advancing, from communicating a message they do not wish to hear. Further,

41 Id., at 29.

42 See Ward, 491 U. S., at 795, n. 5 ("[T]he regulations we have found invalid as prior restraints have 'had this in common: they gave public officials the power to deny use of a forum in advance of actual expression' " (quoting Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U. S. 546, 553 (1975) (emphasis added))).

43 While we have in prior cases found governmental grants of power to private actors constitutionally problematic, those cases are distinguishable. In those cases, the regulations allowed a single, private actor to unilaterally silence a speaker even as to willing listeners. See, e. g., Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U. S. 844, 880 (1997) ("It would confer broad powers of censorship, in the form of a 'heckler's veto,' upon any opponent of indecent speech . . ."). The Colorado statute at issue here confers no such censorial power on the pedestrian.

Page:   Index   Previous  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007